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Donald Trump has overtaken Ted Cruz in the final days before Iowa’s caucuses, with the fate of the race closely tied to the size of Monday evening’s turnout, especially among evangelical voters and those attending for the first time, a Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa Poll shows.

GOP braces for a post-Iowa collision

The bruised and battered Republican Party establishment is bracing for a collision – with the candidates running under its banner.

With the GOP political class growing increasingly worried that insurgents Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are becoming hard to stop, some in the party say the time is growing near for three lagging establishment hopefuls – Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and John Kasich – to reassess their candidacies and help the party unite around one contender.

Last night’s GOP debate featured seven candidates on the main stage and one noticeable absence. While partisans of each candidate are ready to explain why their man won, there seems to be a consensus that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush did the best; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio did very well too; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz had a rough night but did OK; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul made the most of their opportunity and likely ... Read More >>

Six takeaways from the Iowa Republican debate

No, he didn’t show up, but the rest of the Republican presidential field debated anyway. Here are six takeaways from the final GOP debate before the Iowa caucuses on Monday.

Who Won the Republican Debate? Critics Call Ted Cruz Flat but Jeb Bush Better

With Donald J. Trump absent from the debate stage, critics had a chance to focus on the rest of the Republican field. While the verdicts varied, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was seen as starting strong but fading late, while Senator Marco Rubio of Florida had his moments but grew testy at times when faced with tough questions. Some thought Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, had one of his most energetic performances, while the retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson barely registered.

A cluster of Republican candidates strategizing to win the moderate “lane” in the primary in pursuit of a one-on-one showdown with Donald Trump for the nomination may be in for a rude awakening.

Trump, according to a flurry of early-state and national polls, is the overwhelming favorite of self-identified moderate and liberal Republican voters. Among more conservative voters, he often trails his chief rival for the nomination, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz.

With Donald Trump a few miles away at his own event, the remaining seven candidates took advantage of the extra oxygen to audition to be the Republican’s general-election stalwart and commander-in-chief. In a vigorous but relatively newsless debate, there was no discernable sign that the fundamentals of the race changed. But as candidates took advantage of the shifted dynamic, Iowans got a valuable sense of the field and a sharper look at their choices.